“Tooth-Walking Sea-Horse”

Anyone who has ever seen a Walrus haul itself out of the water using its tusks – look how sturdy they are – knows that Linnaeus got it just right when he named them Odobensus rosmarus, roughly translated as “tooth-walking sea-horse”.

Prized for their oil and ivory, the Atlantic Walrus population in Nova Scotia was hunted to extinction long ago. But every now and then, the shifting sands of Sable Island, where the Walrus once lived, reveal their unmistakable tusks – sometimes still attached to massive skulls.